Lubbock police looking to explore crime stats

GABRIEL MONTE

Saturday

Dec 5, 2015 at 6:58 PM

At first glance at rape statistics in Lubbock, it appears forcible rapes are on the rise.

In 2010, about 92 rapes were reported to the Lubbock Police Department. The next year, the number dipped to 71. But 2014 saw a jump to 104, then there was a drop to 88 in 2013. In 2014, there were 128 rapes reported in the city.

However, Lubbock police Lt. Ray Mendoza said the numbers aren't providing an accurate depiction of that particular crime in the Hub City, and Lubbock police are increasing efforts to better understand and, hopefully, improve law enforcement and public efforts to combat sexual assault.

The FBI requires the police department to include every reported rape in the city as part of an annual Uniform Crime Report, he said. The problem is, the reports don't show the whole picture, Mendoza said. The annual report may include rapes from victims coming forward about assaults that happened in years prior; some rapes may not have happened at all.

"UCR doesn't give us a chance to say that (a report) was unfounded," he said.

As part of an effort to better understand crime in the city, Lubbock police began digging deeper this year into the crimes reported to them every year.

"We want to give the citizens the best overall picture because we don't think what we're reporting to UCR is 100 percent representative of what actually is happening," Mendoza said.

He said department analysts will begin with crimes reported this year.

"What we hope to do is to have the UCR report and then have this report where somebody went in and we have people reading every report to be able to classify each category," he said.

One organization that does have the details of reported sexual assaults in the South Plains is the Voice of Hope, the Lubbock rape crisis center. The agency began in 1975 as part of the police department, said Kim Stark, the center's executive director. Female victims weren't comfortable being interviewed by male police officers, she said.

"They started out in the police department because there was no one to interview victims way back in 1975," she said. "We didn't have very many female police officers."

Since it became its own agency, Voice of Hope advocates receive reports of rapes from victims who may not want the police involved, making their numbers more than the police department's.

The Voice of Hope also takes reports from victims throughout the South Plains.

Stark said it is difficult to find a trend in rapes.

"It's just hard to trend. I've not been there a year that we've had under 300," she said. "We average, I'm going to say, between 300-400 sexual assaults a year."

According to their numbers, between 80 and 90 percent of victims do report to the police every year.

However, the agency provides support and counseling for victims whether or not they report to the police.

"A majority of the cases are from Lubbock and they may or may not have been reported to law enforcement and we can't tell law enforcement that we have a case because we're bound by confidentiality," she said.

What is consistent with most rapes and sexual assaults in the South Plains is the relationship between the victim and the attacker.

"I can tell you that very few sexual assaults that occur are random," Stark said. "I'll venture to say that 85-95 percent are perpetrated by someone the victim knows. It's a big myth to think that it's somebody that's in a ski mask jumping out behind a bush."

According to statistics compiled by Voice of Hope in 2015, 20 percent of attackers were related to the victims, 16 percent were acquaintances, 10 percent were friends and 5 percent were ex-boyfriends.

Total strangers make up 17 percent of attackers. However, Stark said that includes attackers whom victims do not want to identify.

Mendoza said as LPD officials delve into the reports, hopefully they will find information that could help them better address sexual assaults in the city.

"What we're trying to evaluate is how many of those people, the victims, were involved in a risky behavior. But risky behavior is going to be hard to define for us. But we're working on trying to come up with a category that can better do that for us," he said. "You know risky behaviors: Were they involved in drug dealing, in any kind of business like that, did they get intoxicated and go home with a complete stranger, you know. We gotta define what risky behavior is. So we're working on that right now.

Meanwhile, Mendoza said Lubbock police are always available to educate citizens on how best to protect themselves.

"What we have continuously tried to do is educate the public on how to protect themselves, number one, and not be discouraged from reporting," he said. "We're always out there trying to provide on-site-type training. And we're always available if somebody wants for (an officer) to come out and put on a presentation or anything like that. We're making ourselves very available and open for that."

gabriel.monte@lubbockonline.com

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